He was shooting for director Partho Ghosh’s film Maseeha when he fell from a moving helicopter. He was doing his own stunts when it happened.

Bollywood actor Inder Kumar died on Friday after a cardiac arrest. The 44-year-old actor used to be a promising talent during the early ‘90s. Films like Masoom, Khiladiyon Ka Khiladi and Tirchi Topiwale positioned him in Bollywood for a star’s life. However, that never happened.

After some initial flops, Inder Kumar became totally dependent on his relationships with established actors for more roles. And then an accident happened, which completely changed his life.

He was shooting for director Partho Ghosh’s film Maseeha when he fell from a moving helicopter. He was doing his own stunts when it happened. He was playing the second fiddle to Sunil Shetty in the film and was determined to make his mark with this film.

He was advised bed rest for three years by the doctors and these years practically sounded a death knell for his career. Inder Kumar narrates the incident to the Times Of India in an interview in 2004. He says, “I fell from a helicopter while shooting for the film Masiha and I was bed-ridden for the next three years. With a broken vertebrae, doctors in Mumbai said that my chances of getting back on my feet are slim.”

Later, he was arrested for sexually assaulting an aspiring actor. He was interviewed by Mid-Day in 2014 in which he says, “When I got arrested, my daughter fell ill. My wife, Pallavi, asked for help to bail me out, but no one came forward.”

He elaborates his situation in the same interview, “It is difficult for me to get a house on rent now. My stuff is lying in a warehouse and we are living at a friend’s place. Only one person stood by us, Dolly Bindra, other than her, my wife and I didn’t receive a single phone call from anyone in the film industry.”

Now when the actor is gone, we can only rue the star he could have been.